Market Information for Buyers and Sellers of Toronto area real estate

Monthly Archives: February 2017

Real Estate 2017

This article contains a podcast which takes a look at real estate 2017 in Mississauga and surroundings. There is a review of sales activity and prices in 2016, plus a look forward to what to expect in 2017.

Update: the Toronto Real Estate Board reported 5,188 residential transactions through the MLS system in January 2017. This was an increase of 11.8% per cent compared to the 4,640 sales that were reported in January 2016. Condos showed a higher sales growth than low-rise homes.

January 2017 was basically an extension of 2016. Sales increased on a year-over-year basis while new listings was down dramatically for most major home types.

It’s pretty clear that owning a home continues to be a great investment and remains very important to many households in Canada. As we move forward through 2017, we expect the demand for ownership housing to remain strong, including demand from first-time buyers who, according to recent surveys, could account for more than half of transactions this year. Many of these potential buyers will have problems finding a home that meets their needs in a market with an extreme shortage of inventory for sale. Prices are at record highs. In the last twelve months, the average selling price of all housing types was up by 22.3 per cent to $770,745, with dramatic increases in the average prices for all major home types.

Biggest problem for the industry – the number of active listings on the MLS system at the end of January was essentially half of what was reported as available at the same time last year. That statistic, on its own, tells us that there is a serious demand and supply imbalance in the Greater Toronto area: a problem that we expect will continue throughout in 2017. The end result will be strong price increases for all home types again this year.

So can we expect the great boom in Canadian real estate to continue? Find out here:

Questions: with prices up a staggering 22.3% per cent in 2016, can the bull market continue? How much higher can house prices go in Toronto, where the average price for a detached home is now over $1 million dollars? Will interest rates rise? What about world politics – will they affect the local Canadian market? What about condos? Just a few questions to consider.

portions of this report first appeared in the Toronto Real Estate Board Market Watch publication